We Stamp for Lara ....

A couple of months ago you may remember we were starting to plan some fundraising for essential equipment for Lara Dunn, the daughter of a much loved member of our Stampin' Up! Community here in Australia, Madonna Dunn. Madonna's fourth child Lara was born with Cerebral Palsy, but if you ever wanted an example of a family that looks for the best in every situation, the Dunn  family is it!

The fundraising planning has culminated (thanks to the amazing hard work by Alisa Tilsner and Madonna herself) in this fabulous online stamping event for November.

 

It's going to be so awesome!  I am one of the people donating a tutorial and I am working on it now. It's a photo themed project and perfect for a family Christmas gift. In addition to all the tutorials from top demonstrators, you have all those fabulous opportunities to win great prizes, including a BigShot donated by the lovely Elite team leader Angela Sargeant.

You get all this, and a fab blog to go to for a whole month for just a $25 donation to a fabulous cause and a fabulous family. All you need to do to sign up is transfer $25 into Lara's Trust Fund (Madonna has experienced issues with PayPal so we are not using PayPal anymore):

Heritage Building Society
Mrs M J Dunn T/F Lara May Dunn
BSB 638010
A/C #:  12189650

It's going to be totally awesome so I hope to see you in there! If you would like to read a little more about the background to Lara's story, you can read this post on Madonna's blog.

Thanks for supporting a great cause and making life a little easier for Lara and her family.

Claire xx

 

Extreme Elements and some flowers for a friend ....

I have a couple of cards to show you today, and some pics from my garden. While it's a lovely spring warm day here in Melbourne, it is getting kind of windy and they are predicting lots and lots of rain tomorrow, like up to 100mm in some places of the state. The weather has gone crazy hasn't it? Mum was talking to me about the terrible drought the farmers are experiencing in WA, and here we are in the eastern states of Australia letting water out of dams because they are over full.

Back to Extreme Elements of a different kind, the stamped ones! Josh has a party for a friend this afternoon, and this is such a great set for older boys. My colours are Baja Breeze, Cherry Cobbler (doesn't that name make you want to grab dessert?) and Basic Black.

 

Next up a card that I made for s friend to send her something I know she would appreciate. This isn't a Stampin' Up! image, but one from a set of floral outline stamps I recently purchased. I am a sucker for anything to do with nature and I am starting to learn to colour. My colours are Stampin' Up! Blushing Bride, Bravo Burgundy and Basic Black. I wish I hadn't put the Dazzling Diamonds in the middle as it sort of covered some of the shading, but then the recipient is a blingy sort of girl!

 

Here are the pictures of my lovely Foxgloves which are flowering. I do love Foxgloves! You may be able to make out my very badly staked sweet peas climbing through the garden about midway through this shot. They are very special Sweet Peas because Sam bought the seeds home from Kinder on St Patricks day. It's good luck to plant Sweet Peas on St Patricks Day, and I wanted to show my appreciation for the hard work that Em the kinder teacher put in, so I am glad they are happily flowering and rambling through my garden. I'll be sending a picture into her soon.

 

 

Working on finishing off my tutorial for "WE Stamp for Lara" today (more about that in the next post). Other than that probably won't be much crafting this weekend. We have a busy weekend ahead with a visit from Grampa tonight (much to the boys delight!), a Halloween Party tomorrow night (costumes all ready!) and then Sunday catching up with a friend I haven't seen for too long for a lazy brunch.

Hope your weekend is special too,

Claire xx

 

Butterfly Wings and Nursery Suite DSP ...

I recently got the Stampin' Up! Butterfly Wings embosslit (cuts and embosses in one step) for my BigShot. How cute are these butterflies? I just love them.  There are 5 different sizes on the embosslit die, each with a different embossed pattern.

 

I based the layout of this card on a lovely Incentive Trip swap I received from my lovely friend Linda Higgins. She makes beautiful cards!

My colours were taken from the Nursery Suite DSP which I have used here: Regal Rose, Pear Pizzazz, Baja Breeze and Early Espresso. I have also used the Petals a Plenty embossing folder in there which is one of my favourites at the moment.

Hope you like today's card. be back soon with some more, just need to photograph them!

Claire xx

Welcome Christmas and Christmas Cocoa DSP

I've been having a play with the Stampin' Up! Christmas Cocoa DSP, Welcome Christmas stamp set and the free roll of ribbon I got to choose as part of the Dress Up Christmas promotion. I loved the look of this ribbon and as this was a new paper not in our catalogue, I was a sucker for this special!

This bundle is PERFECT for anyone who loves the vintage style. Throw in some Antique brads and some adhesive pearls and you can do all sorts of yummy projects. Here's a few cards I came up with last night.

I think this one is my favourite. The silhouette stamp in Welcome Christmas just begs to be clear embossed don't you think? I really like the greeting in this set too. The red damask paper in this DSP pack is flocked - feels so soft and velvety! The colours in that match this DSP are Real Red, Always Artichoke and Crumb Cake.

 

This one also uses the flocked paper and I'm not sure if you can see the adhesive pearls I have placed on each letter.

 
 

In this last one, I have gold embossed the wreath and added a few small adhesive pearls. I really like the new modern label punch with the word window punch!

 

You can grab your own free roll of exclusive ribbon as part of the Dress Up Christmas promotion between now and the end of November. There are 2 ways to get your free ribbon. You can either purchase a bundle (and the bundles start at just $56.90 - see below) or be a hostess at a $550 workshop. There are 4 great rolls of ribbon to choose from):

 
  

Here's a run down on the bundles:

Gifted Bundle: Gifted Set and Jolly Holly DSP ($66.90 wood or $56.90 clear)

Welcome Christmas Bundle: Welcome Christmas stamp set and Christmas Cocoa DSP ($69.90 wood or $59.90 clear) - this is the bundle I have used above

Season of Joy Bundle: Season of Joy Stamp Set and So Swirly Stampin' Around Wheel ($67.90 wood)

Delightful Decorations Bundle: Delightful Decorations Stamp Set and Ornament Punch ($72.90)

Ready to choose? Just emailor call me (03 9735 2946) to order one today and choose your free roll of exclusive ribbon and it will be on it's way to you this week so you can make these cards.

 

Stampin' Up! Razzle Dazzle and Blueberry Crisp DSP ...

As promised, here is my Stampin' Up! Incentive Trip swap, which was a gift card holder using the BigShot and Scalloped Envelope Die. I used BlueBerry Crisp DSP, which matches the Razzle Dazzle stamp set. The colours that match the Blueberry Crisp DSP are Not Quite Navy, Pacific Point, Very Vanilla and Sahara Sand; so I made a couple two different colour versions - Not Quite Navy and Pacific Point.

 

 

I embossed just the bottom part of the gift card holder with the Petals a Plenty Textured Impressions Embossing folderfor the BigShot. The Scalloped Envelope Die has been been used as the gift card holder and there is lots of stamping of the image from Razzle Dazzle, including stamped off on the greeting (which is from Perfect Punches.

 

The embellishments on the cover were a belly band made from cardstock and the Blueberry Crisp DSP, two punched butterflies (one in cardstock with the Razzle Dazzle image stamped off in Sahara Sand) and also a Rhinestone brad. Under the greeting I have used one of the BigShot Sizzlit dies from Lots of Tags. This is the perfect shape to mat our wide oval punch.

I hope you like this run down of my Incentive Swap! I have some other creations to share with you soon too, so will be back soon. Have a happy and creative day,

Claire xx 

Stuck for Christmas card ideas? Get pictures and step by step instructions for 10 cards designed by me in my Jolly Holiday Tutorial set - just $16! You can purchase or read all the details here.

Extra exclusive samples are posted in my subscriber newsletters and on  my Facebook page - sign up top right hand column for my newsletter or visit my Facebook page.